Jalen Duren scored 31 points and grabbed nine rebounds as the host Detroit Pistons topped the Toronto Raptors 127-116 on Tuesday night.
Daniss Jenkins supplied 21 points, five rebounds and five assists for Eastern Conference-leading Detroit (55-21), which won for the 10th time in 13 games. Duncan Robinson had 19 points, while Tobias Harris contributed 12 points, six assists and five rebounds.
Caris LeVert had 12 points and Paul Reed added 10 for the Pistons. Detroit overcame 21 turnovers by shooting 60.3% from the field while clinching the Central Division title for the first time since 2007-08.
RJ Barrett led Toronto with 24 points and pulled down six rebounds. Brandon Ingram scored 22 points, and Sandro Mamukelashvili had 16. Collin Murray-Boyles added 14 points with 10 rebounds for the Raptors (42-33), who blew out the Orlando Magic 139-87 on Sunday.
The Pistons were coming off an overtime loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday, when Detroit didn’t have four of its starters for the showdown against the Western Conference’s top team. All-Star Cade Cunningham (collapsed lung) was the only starter who missed the Tuesday contest.
Duren, one of the players who sat out on Monday, had 17 points by halftime as the Pistons took a 59-54 lead. Detroit shot 61.1% from the field but allowed Toronto to hang around by committing 13 turnovers. Barrett led the Raptors with 18 first-half points.
Detroit methodically pulled away in the third quarter. A Harris layup off a Ausar Thompson feed made it 71-60. A Robinson layup with an assist from Harris stretched the lead to 15 points. Robinson’s 3-pointer with 5:20 left in the quarter pushed the advantage to 86-66.
Moments later, Robinson knocked down another deep shot.
Detroit still held a comfortable lead at 100-81 entering the fourth. Reed’s layup with 7:25 left made it 115-92.
A 12-0 run by the Raptors closed the gap to 11 points on a layup from A.J. Lawson with 4:19 to go.
After Toronto pulled within 10, Robinson stifled the visitors’ momentum with a 3-pointer. A couple of inside baskets by Duren put the game away.
–Field Level Media